


Not Broken

by Twilight_Enterprises



Series: All the Linked Universe [9]
Category: Linked Universe - Fandom, The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms, The Legend of Zelda: Hyrule Warriors, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
Genre: Acephobia, Also Cia needs to learn boundaries, Angst, Asexual character(s), Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, He used to have a therapist, Past Child Abuse, Past Rape/Non-con, Sidenote Midna is a good ally, The original non-binary character is the therapist, Twilight and Warriors are the best siblings, Twilight gives Warriors the platonic love he deserves, Twilight is a good brother, Warriors needs love, You don't have to be heterosexual and/or cisgender to be an asshole, but not sexual love, change my mind, he doesn't want that, his therapist was not good
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-06
Updated: 2020-11-06
Packaged: 2021-03-09 05:54:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,180
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27409933
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Twilight_Enterprises/pseuds/Twilight_Enterprises
Summary: Cia went too far when she had Warriors locked in the room in the Temple of Souls.This resulted in trauma, touch aversion, and acephobia.Warriors was having a really bad time until Twilight told him some things.
Relationships: Artemis & Warriors (Linked Universe), Midna (Legend of Zelda) & Twilight (Linked Universe) - mentioned, Twilight & Warriors (Linked Universe)
Series: All the Linked Universe [9]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1823866
Comments: 11
Kudos: 88





	Not Broken

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [A Chain of Aces](https://archiveofourown.org/works/26067331) by [Idhren15](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Idhren15/pseuds/Idhren15). 



> Oh, boy...  
> So I was reading "A Chain of Aces" by Idhren15, and then this just kind of spat itself out.  
> As someone who has recently figured out they are asexual, it was really nice to read a fic where literally everyone (except Sky, but he's the best ally and we love him) is also asexual. Representation matters! I straight up (well, not straight, but you know what I mean) didn't know asexuality was a thing until about a year ago, and it's only been in the past few months that I realised that I Do Not Understand what people mean when they say someone is hot. One of my friends tried to explain it to me and I was Very Confused.  
> So yes! Representation is important.  
> Unrelated sidenote for a completely different fandom, James Potter is heterosexual panromantic and you cannot change my mind. He would be gay for Sirius if that wasn't Remus's job. He'd also be gay for Remus if that wasn't Sirius's job. And Peter Pettigrew is ace. Fight me.

A small, delicate hand came down on his shoulder. 

Link flinched. Violently. 

The hand immediately retreated, followed by a woman’s soft voice.

“I’m sorry, Link,” Zelda whispered. “You zoned out, and I just wanted to check if you were all right, but… clearly you aren’t.”

Link shook his head. He didn’t trust himself to speak. Not after what had just happened. 

Zelda bit her lip. “I don’t know what happened in that room, and you don’t have to tell me. Especially not when it’s so fresh… but if you don’t mind, I would like to know what you aren’t okay with right now.”

He didn’t reply at first.  _ “I would prefer it if no one touched me,”  _ he signed eventually.  _ “But if someone has to, I’d prefer it if they had large, rough hands. I’d also appreciate it if I could have a better scrubber.”  _

“Okay,” Zelda said. “We won’t touch you. I think I have a spare scrubber in my bag you can use. Let me know if you need anything else.” She folded her arms across her stomach. “If you ever feel ready to talk… I’m here. Though I will ask that you tell me anything that may compromise your ability to do your duty, so that we might prepare for the possibility.”

He nodded, and she left him to his thoughts. 

After a while, he returned to the camp to grab the scrubber, then headed to the nearby lake to bathe. 

He scrubbed every inch of himself until it was red and raw.

It didn’t get rid of the feeling of  _ her  _ on him. 

It didn’t get rid of the walls - the paintings on the walls - burned into his vision. 

It didn’t get rid of the feeling of violation.

He suspected Lana might have some idea of what happened in that room of the Temple of Souls. She’d been the first to find a way in, after all. 

She was avoiding him now. She probably thought he was filthy. 

He certainly did.

Later, he signed to Zelda that he didn’t think he could take  _ her  _ down on his own. 

Sure enough, he hadn’t. Zelda was the one who struck the final blow. 

He suspected, after Zelda saw him barely react to Ganondorf grabbing him to take the Triforce of Courage, that she had some idea of what happened in that room of the Temple of Souls, too. 

A few days after they defeated Ganondorf, he’d finally gotten the courage to sign three words that made Zelda cry. 

She suggested talking to a therapist, and it helped, at first. 

The therapist recommended to start working on his touch aversion by sitting down with someone he trusted and getting used to physical contact with them. The therapist also said to start with someone whose hands were similar to  _ hers _ , but different enough that it wouldn’t trigger a panic attack. 

Impa’s hands were rough and callused. She was much more patient with his transition from struggling to shake her hand to being comfortable with a hug than she’d ever been with training. 

Once he was completely comfortable with Impa, the therapist recommended doing the same thing with someone whose hands were terrifyingly similar to  _ hers.  _

Zelda was even more patient than Impa had been, and she even managed to get him speaking verbally again. 

That was when the therapist asked what he thought about the next step being… sleeping with someone. 

That was when Link told him he never wanted to experience that again. 

“You can’t go the rest of your life without it, Link,” the therapist said. “It’s Hylian nature. Someday you’ll want it, but if you don’t take that step with someone you trust  _ now,  _ you may have a panic attack when you take that step with someone else you find appealing.”

Link shook his head. “But I’ve never wanted it, and that experience just solidified the lack of… desire,” he insisted.

The therapist sighed. “Oh, Link, you don’t understand. You may  _ think  _ you’ve never wanted it, but really you’re looking at your memories through the shadow of the fact that your first time was traumatic and non-consensual. That experience broke you, and you’ve come a long way since then. You’ve pieced yourself back together, but until you take this next step, part of you will always be missing.”

“I don’t feel comfortable doing that.”

“I’m sure that one good time will be all you need to be fixed, Link. You’ll be good as new.”

Link stood up. “I fail to see how doing something that makes me uncomfortable will solve the problem. If anything I think it’ll make it worse!”

The therapist stood, too. “Now, Link, I’m experienced in these matters. You don’t know what you’re talking about. Remember you can tell me anything. This is a safe space.”

“Really? Because I don’t feel very safe right now.”

“I only want to help you, Link, but I can’t until you get through that mental barrier.” The therapist stepped forward.

Link took a defensive step back. “Please don’t come any closer. I’m a soldier, and you’re making me feel threatened, and if you come within five feet of me I won’t be held responsible for my instinctive actions.”

The therapist stepped forward again. “Calm down, Link. You’re lashing out for no reason - put that knife awa-”

But whatever the therapist was planning to say next was lost, as Link’s soldier instincts decided to stab the perceived threat in the neck. 

That was how Zelda found him, half an hour later - on his knees next to the body, soaked in blood, and shaking from silent sobs. He didn’t hear her come in over the sound of the thoughts racing through his mind.

_ What if the therapist was right? What if all I need is to sleep with someone? What if I DID used to feel that desire, but I don’t remember it because of one bad experience? What if I AM broken?  _

_ What if I am broken? _

_ If I am broken? _

_ I am broken? _

_ I am broken. _

_ I am broken. _

_ I am broken. _

He’d never been able to stop scrubbing himself raw every time he bathed. Now one of his travelling companions teased him about it. 

“Ah, finally finished giving yourself spa treatment, Pretty Boy?” Legend called as he returned to the camp. 

Warriors - that was what he called himself now (fitting, wasn’t it, since battle was so ingrained in his bones that he murdered his therapist) - simply shrugged. Legend didn’t know  _ why  _ he scrubbed himself the way he did, so he didn’t hold it against him. 

And he  _ had  _ made some progress since the abrupt end of his therapy sessions. He could now talk about sex without feeling uncomfortable, but he still had no desire to ever engage in it. 

He was still broken. 

But he laughed at the camp’s reactions when he asked how long Time’s honeymoon had been.

He laughed at Twilight’s beet red face when he made the connection between Time’s current status as childless and the fact that Twilight was his descendant. 

He made himself out to be a ladies’ man, stealthily disappearing every time they were in a crowded pub or inn so the others would think he was off having a shag. 

_ I am broken.  _

_ I am broken.  _

_ I am broken. _

_ I am - _

_ “Not  _ broken,” said a voice he recognised as Twilight’s. 

The other hero’s hands were holding his own. Evidently he’d been unconsciously signing the words that he’d been repeating for two years, ever since the therapist fiasco. 

Warriors convinced himself to meet Twilight’s warm but stern cobalt eyes. 

“I was forced to have sex that I didn’t want to have,” he blurted. 

Twilight’s eyes softened. “And my dad was abusive, and yet here we are. Maybe not whole, but not broken.”

Warriors shook his head. “You don’t get it. I had a therapist - and I killed them when they told me I needed to have consensual sex with someone I trust.”

“And I killed my dad, and yet here we are.”

“Wait, you killed your dad?”

Twilight shrugged. “He tried to kill me first, but yeah. But it doesn’t matter. I’m  _ trying  _ to tell you that you’re not broken just because you killed someone, or because you were forced into non-consensual sex. You might be a bit rough around the edges, but it doesn’t mean you’re broken. If we follow that logic, then I’m broken because I was cursed into the form of a wolf.”

“...You’ve lost me.”

“I mean having bad things that you can’t control happen to you doesn’t mean you’re broken. Trust me. It took me a  _ long  _ time to learn that.”

Warriors sighed. “But I could’ve controlled myself instead of killing my therapist.”

Twilight looked unimpressed. “Did I ever tell you about the time I nearly cut off my adoptive dad’s head because he snuck up on me after I’d just had a nightmare about my biological dad?”

“No, but that’s different!”

“Is it?” Twilight asked, tilting his head to the side. “I know you, Warriors. You don’t hurt people if you can help it, which means you must have felt threatened.  _ I  _ felt threatened when Rusl snuck up on me. Is that not the same thing?”

Warriors scowled. “When did you get so good at this kind of thing?”

Twilight laughed. “I’m much better at handling other people’s mental health than my own.” He absently fiddled with the shadow crystal hanging from his neck. “You wanna talk about what happened with your therapist?”

“It’s been two years, I probably should…”

“You don’t have to.”

Warriors ran a hand through his hair. “No, I should get it off my chest. They told me I should sleep with someone, and I told them that I didn’t want to. That I’d never wanted to. They told me I was looking at my memories through the shadow of a bad experience, and that one good time would ‘fix me.’ They said I was broken, that everything would be better once I was fixed. That was when I stopped feeling safe, and it kind of escalated from there.”

There was silence. He looked at Twilight anxiously, expecting to see disgust on the other hero’s face. 

There was no disgust. 

Just pure, unfiltered fury. 

“Uh… Twi?”

Twilight let out a sharp breath. “Your therapist was wrong,” he spat, shaking his head. “You weren’t looking at your memories through the shadow of a bad experience. If you say you’ve never wanted sex, or never experienced that kind of desire, then you haven’t. It’s as simple as that.”

“So I’m still broken, then.”

“Of course not! A lack of sexual attraction doesn’t make you  _ broken,  _ Warriors. There’s a word for it, it’s called asexuality, and it’s completely valid!”

Warriors crossed his arms. “Is it, though?”

Twilight huffed. “Let me put it this way: we’re all Hylian, yes?”

“Yes.”

“Right. But let’s say I wasn’t Hylian. Let’s say I was Wolfie. Permanently. I’m a wolf, and I have no way of becoming Hylian. I still behave the same way, I’m still me, but I’m not Hylian. Does that make me a monster?”

“No! Of course it doesn’t! Why would that - oh. It’s an analogy, isn’t it. Being a wolf doesn’t make you a monster, asexuality doesn’t make me invalid.”

Twilight grinned. “Exactly, now you’re getting it.”

Warriors frowned. “Why do I feel like you’ve said that to someone before?”

“I haven’t. My companion on my quest actually said it to  _ me.  _ I don’t experience sexual attraction either, and I used to think it was a result of my dad being a terrible person. Then one day my companion turned around and snapped, ‘Do you think I’m a monster because I’m not Hylian?’ I responded the same way you did, though a bit confused as to where the question was coming from. Then she said, ‘Then you’re not broken because you don’t experience sexual attraction.’ From then on, she pretty much refused to hear anything opposing that, and eventually I started to believe it. She was also the one who told me it was called asexuality.”

“Heh. She sounds like Midna,” Warriors said.

Twilight nearly fell over. “You know Midna?”

“Wait, was she your companion?”

“Yeah, she was!” He sounded excited for a second, but then his face fell. “But she left. She left and broke the Mirror of Twilight, so we’d never see each other again.”

Warriors put his hand on Twilight’s shoulder. “Next time we’re in my Hyrule, I’ll see if Lana can open the same kind of portal that brought Midna to my time in the first place. Then you can do whatever you want - hug her, punch her, scream at her, thank her, anything. Whatever you do, I’ll be in the background cheering you on.”

Twilight laughed. “Thanks, mate. Now, you feeling better about yourself?”

“Yeah, I think I am.”

“Good. Because if you’re invalid, then I am also invalid, and then it’s just awkward.”

Warriors shoved his face away. “Shut up, you prick.”

“Love you too.”

“Fuck off.”

“Will do.”

**Author's Note:**

> I feel the need to say that I have nothing against non-binary people, but assholery/homophobia/acephobia/transphobia/etc are not gender/sexuality/ethnicity specific.  
> I feel like too many people forget that.


End file.
